Keeping Distance
by Kate-Emma
Summary: A new virus has spread through the colony and the antidote lays back in 2149. They need Lucas Taylor to reopen the rift. Can Skye convince him to do it, and what happens if she does - is it as simple as walking through and grabbing the cure?
1. Keeping Distance

**Disclaimer: **May I own this pairing and show? Alas… I do not. Though, if someone could lend me a spare, oh idk, 20 million? Just wondering if anyone has that cash on hand?

Keeping Distance  
>SkyeLucas

**A/N: **May I ship this until I am dead! OMG… the masochism, the tension, how much I adore Ash and his bad accent and how excited I am he got a job after Rush! Highfives! So this story is dedicated to people like me who will soon ensure that Fox heads will be hunted down by fans who want to go all Nykoraptor on their asses… they have been warned! Here's hoping it gets picked up elsewhere. Until that happens, we shall languish in agony and fanfiction. Time for me to make a contribution. Enjoy…

…

"Skye!"

Skye Tate's head rose quickly at the familiar sound of her own name. She smiled weakly at her patient, though her smile was behind a facemask and therefore redundant, and hurried to the source of her name. In the doorway stood Josh Shannon with a very ill-looking young man hanging off his arm. Skye sighed. "Another one?"

Josh gave a quick shrug. "He just collapsed on the walkway in front of me up near the markets. I don't even know his name." Josh's voice shook with worry, and guilt that he didn't know the guy, but Skye didn't blame him one bit. How could he? She didn't know everyone's name either, that was Taylor's job, and he was the one who was good at it.

But she did know this guy's name. "It's Penn. Penn Duncan, he was on the fifth, with me." She lifted his chin and scanned his eyes. Bloodshot as the rest in the infirmary. "Thanks Josh, I can take it from here." She grabbed a wheelchair and ushered the guy into it. Once seated he dropped his head, not by choice Skye knew, but simply because he couldn't hold it up anymore.

"Mom said you're over capacity." He said, following Skye into the hospital, though he didn't need to. She nodded wordlessly as she grabbed at a needle of painkillers and drove it into Penn's arm without bothering to be careful about it anymore. There was no longer time for niceties. "What the hell is it?"

Skye glanced up. "Cariatic Flu." Josh frowned deeper than before. "It's a strain of influenza that was eradicated in 2130 by physicist James Hurley. He made a shot, one shot and it works forever, but it was expensive. Not everyone's had it." She frowned. "I got it because of my father, free shots for military and police family, you've probably had it too but don't even remember. But the rest, the nobodies, it's still around." She bit her lip. "The re-breathers killed it in 2149, made it hard to spread, so those with it died and it died with them. But now…" her eyes rose to Josh's. "It likes the jungle, the dirt, the shared oxygen and trees. Cariatic Flu couldn't survive our dead world, but here, it's flourishing!"

…

"Bucket."

He's the only one who gets to call her that. Well, she says 'gets' because it convinces her she has some say in the matter, that she lets him. She knows she doesn't. She turns slowly and looks at him with a bored look on her face. "This is your last dose." He nods and steps towards her, the splash of water filling the empty space as they stand a good six feet apart at the Falls, their usual meeting place. Well, not usual. Fourth and final time really. "This means I'm not coming back. You know that right?"

He gives her a blank look and once again Skye's left feeling like an idiot under his gaze. How could he be so… messed up? Even after she'd helped him? "I guessed that was the case when you said 'last' Bucket." His tone is mocking, but gravelly, soft. She waits for him to yell at her to just give him the meds and go, as he usually does, as he's done all three times before, but instead he just shoves his hands in the pockets of his dirty jeans, flinching softly from the damage to his shoulder and chest. He couldn't sleep on his right side for two months. He doesn't miss those days. "What do you want me to say? Thank you and goodbye? You made it clear when you came out here the first time that you did so to clear a troubled conscience, not for me, so in all due respects I've done you a favor…"

She cuts him off with a growl. "I'm not looking for any thanks from someone like you…" she looks at him like the animal she sees him as. She's seen him respond to her kindness, momentary changes that made her think she hadn't been so stupid to once believe a good man was under there, but then this animal emerges again and… she just doesn't know. "Just say the slate's clean and that I'll never have to see you again."

He nods. "Slate's clean." She looks away, picking up the meds to lay them on the rock plateau between them, when he talks again. "Of course this also means I could pull a gun on you right now, you know, for a little revenge." There's a cold smile on his face but Skye doesn't let her uneasiness show and just takes the meds from the bag and puts them down, raising her eyes back to his and staring him down.

"Well, do it if you're doing it then." There isn't even a gun in his hand. His words are just that. She shakes her head at him. "Good luck Lucas. If Terra Nova's lucky, a Nykoraptor will get you, and if you're lucky he'll be quick." With a nod she turns and walks away. Not quickly, not slowly, just purposeful. She stops when she hears him pick up the bag and turns. He's watching her, she knows that when she looks at him, and she scratches her bottom lip with her teeth before she speaks. "There's three colonists in the infirmary with black rashes and coughing fits. No one has any idea what it is." His expression is blank, unreadable, but Skye powers on anyway. "You're a genius, I know you know, so just tell me." Nothing and so she forces one last word through her teeth. "Please."

He fiddles with a bottle of painkillers, snaps them open and takes one dry, before he answers slowly. "Cariatic Flu." He shrugs. "Or it sounds like anyway. It's easily treated with a shot or a tablet derived from a shot, if you don't have enough." He doesn't look anywhere near as worried as Skye feels. "Cured in the modern world by James Hurley in 2130. You can find out more yourself. I've given you more than enough." He grabs the bag of meds and turns away before Skye speaks again.

"Thank you."

He gives her no response… he simply walks away.

Keeping Distance  
>SkyeLucas

Rated T

A virus has broken out at Terra Nova that threatens to wipe out half the population. There's a cure, one that's readily available anywhere in the future, but now they're cut off from 2149 it's not as simple as radioing Hope Plaza and asking for a hand. Commander Taylor is worried. It's been three months since the 6ers and Phoenix Group invaded Terra Nova and now this? How much more can their little community take?

The only answer is a way back to 2149 and somewhere there's a cure. Taylor knows they need to reopen the portal, but it's not as easy as just finding it and walking back through, because the only person who's ever gone both ways is his son… and technically, he's dead.

Skye has the answers. Three months ago, after shooting Lucas, she went in search of him. Plagued with guilt, she wanted to treat him, as long as he promised to stay away from Terra Nova. Whatever the Phoenix Group did, whether he got the portal open again, none of it bothered her, but she wanted Terra Nova to be okay, it was her home. He reluctantly agreed. But now he's reconnected with the 6ers, or what's left of them anyway since half of them followed the Phoenix Group to the Badlands, and it's not as easy as picking him up and taking him back to Terra Nova. Thankfully he has only one known weakness – his affections for Skye Tate. Despite her guilt she agrees to play on them once again.

But even with Lucas Taylor in their grasp, can they find and reopen the portal, get a man to the future and find the cure again? Or are they doomed to fail? And what about Skye and Lucas… with a clean slate and a fresh start, united in this campaign, can the search for a cure find a cure to their problems and questions… like what's going on between them anyway?

* * *

><p><em>Dedicated to Kaycie, because she's awesome and I miss our SkyeLucas love-ins and to all the great people who were once on Terra Nova: New Earth._


	2. Bridging Gaps

**Disclaimer: **The ownership of Terra Nova drifts in the wild… someone wanna catch it for me and give it to me for Easter?

Keeping Distance

_3 Months Ago…_

Skye Tate hated feeling out of control. She hated it more than anything. She couldn't be certain if it was something that had always been there, a lesson her military father Elliot had drilled into her from birth, or if it had just been a reaction to the last week – like Post-Traumatic Stress or something – but either way she was starting to hate it immensely. Of course she often put herself in dangerous situations, she'd been doing it for almost 2 ½ years now, living on the edge so she could feel alive, but she'd always had control then. She'd chosen her danger… lately it seemed to be choosing her.

She wasn't weaponless, a gun sat tucked in the belt of her jeans, but she still felt very alone out here. The Howlers, funnily enough, were comforting; she just wished they shut up long enough for her to be able to hear exactly what she was stalking. The marks on the ground, the blood trail, had ended at the river – that was where the soldiers of Terra Nova had given up and Commander Taylor announced the man had thrown himself into the water in a bid to get across and likely drowned. His voice had been so emotionless, he'd tried so hard to be strong, but Skye hadn't believed it for a second. It was why she was here, walking in the late afternoon sun, a long way away from Terra Nova, barely a day after the triumphant return of the Commander to his beloved home. That walk through the gate, the hugs and smiles, they'd all been heroes… Skye hadn't felt like one.

She smelled it before she saw it, the pungent smell of blood, a lot of it too based on the force it hit her nostrils. She was almost knocked out by the smell. She spotted the blood trails on leaves, a tree branch, the rocks. A trail leading in the direction of the old 6er camp. She wasn't surprised at all. Hell, if she knew anything at all about him, she knew he'd go there.

She risked a call. "Lucas…" but there was no power behind the call, it barely travelled, and it fell to the ground like tossed mud. She looked around her, grabbing the bag of medical supplies as she stepped over a fallen tree, noting the bloodline continued a little longer. She would follow it as far as the outskirts of the 6er camp she had (reluctantly) come to know so well… then she would stop and walk away. The guilt would flow out of her into the river as she crossed it back towards home, she'd return to her mother, and everything would be fine.

And then she saw him. Laying in a collection of reeds, barely hidden though he seemed to try, asleep she guessed from the way his shoulders rose and fell as he lay there. His left hand still pressed between his right elbow and his side, but blood stained his clothes, and in 30 hours he'd failed to come as far as Skye had in 3. It meant she was right – he was very bad.

"Lucas." She spoke more clearly this time, putting down the bag, but keeping the gun close at hand just in case. She withdrew a needle from the bag and a small vial. She'd packed this just in case, felt sure when she got there she'd be tough enough to talk him into sense, but right now she just wanted to do what needed to be done without him smart-assing and questioning her every move. Or worse, physically punishing her for what she'd done. No, she didn't need that. She filled the needle and stepped towards him, taking his right wrist in her hand, turning it slowly so the vein beneath his elbow was visible. She was about to inject him with the anesthetic when he moved and his bloody right hand grabbed her arm, yanking her down. Her gun fell from her belt, knocked out by her leg, and she tumbled forwards, barely stopping herself from being pulled right over him. Her face rose to his and he glared at her, pale from a lack of blood, but the hate was evident. "I'm here to help."

"My father send you to finish me off?" He muttered weakly, cold but weak, and the sentence forced between gritted teeth.

His hand had stilled her needle hand and she didn't dare shake him off and risk him doing himself, and her, more harm. "No, I tracked you, I couldn't stand knowing I'd killed anyone." She knew she didn't need to bait him, with him lying there barely able to move, but she couldn't help it. She'd come all this way with all the dinosaurs around and now he thought the Commander had sent her to end his life? She momentarily wished it were true, but then the guilt returned, and she cleared her throat. "You're not worth my help Lucas Taylor, but you're getting it, because I'm not having your blood on my hands."

"Precious little Bucket, can't even let the big bad wolf die." His words stung and Skye bit her back teeth down on her tongue, setting her jaw and giving him a cold glare. "I thought you were strong. I was wrong."

"Like I care what you think." Skye lied. Of course she cared, she cared what everything thought, that was her true weakness. She was a healer, a saver, and she hated being disliked. She didn't like who Lucas was, what he stood for, but that didn't mean she didn't care. "Now would you like to let me go so I can save you, or shall I leave and let you die here?"

"Maybe there's a third option," then, with a strength that belied his appearance, Lucas yanked his right arm from her hold and grabbed at the thing on the ground by Skye's feet – her gun. She noticed barely a moment before he turned it up and flicked off the safety. With his inner arm exposed she flashed her hand up and jammed the needle into his wrist. It went in hard, and the surprise removed Lucas' finger from the trigger, just in time for Skye to plunge the liquid from the needle into his arm. Then she jumped back, well more fell back really, and grabbed her bag as her best attempt at a shield in case the fast-acting anesthetic didn't work. It did though and five seconds after being injected Lucas' hand fell limp and the gun slid from it. "You'll regret that." Lucas managed, though his speech was quickly slurring, and his arm fell to the ground, needle still stuck in it. The rest of his body soon followed but Skye didn't move again until his eyes closed.

As soon as they did she stood and kicked the gun back towards a tree behind her. It slid to a stop against the base and just lay there. With a shaking hand she picked up the medicine bag and, gathering a breath and forcing back the emotion and reality she'd come too close to feeling Lucas' rage, she went to work.

…

_1 Week Ago…  
><em>

The Eye was empty, the booking log empty, no one came in search of answers because no one knew where to start looking. The outbreak of the rashes and the coughing had taken the infirmary by surprise. She could still remember the day the first patient had walked in with the symptoms, that had been a week earlier, and now it had spread so quickly the infirmary was full. Even after returning from dropping off Lucas' final batch of meds the infirmary had acquired three more patients. In the space of an hour three more had fallen sick. To be perfectly honest, Skye was terrified.

It had only been three years since she'd sat in that infirmary next to her father, clutching his hand tightly and refusing to leave, as he died from Syncillic Fever. At the end there'd been no energy in his grip, no way to even move, and his breath came out in rasps. Even when he was gone, when it had required the Commander himself walk into the infirmary and drag the 14-year-old away, Skye had refused to let go of her father's hand. It had ripped her apart, ripped her life apart really, she hadn't been the same girl since that day. Those days when she used to know who she was.

Now other families were going through what she had. No, it wouldn't happen again, this flu was not going to claim a life. It was why she'd asked Lucas, she hadn't wanted to, but she just felt he would know. And it was why she'd booked The Eye for the next hour. She swiped her ID card and stepped inside, pushing the door shut behind her, sighing at the sight of the familiar oversized chair in front of the massive screen. The last time she'd been in here was on Lucas' orders. But this time it was retribution. She turned the massive machine on with another swipe of her ID card and activated voice control. Then, taking a breath, she stared up at the screen before she spoke. "Search: Cariatic Influenza."

The Eye whirred into life and a myriad of images and documents flashed across the screen before one slowed to a stop. It was a research paper and everything Lucas had said was there: the 2130 vaccine, James Hurley, the symptoms matched. And there, at the end, the likelihood of outbreak: less than 1%. "Print document."

As the research paper whirred out of the printer, four pages in total, Skye stood and snapped them up before she noted a file floating in the background of the research paper. "Computer… Search: Lucas Taylor." There was a blur of files being opened and Skye backed up and sat back down again, clutching the papers she'd just printed off as a file came up, a much younger man looking at the camera. It was a video of his psych evaluation. She moved to hit play but then paused and shook her head. She didn't want to, didn't need to, know that. What she did see was one thing in the middle of the page: 'Killed – Shot. Missing, presumed deceased.' At that she hit the tablet next to the chair and the screen went black. She stayed in the seat for a moment. She shook her head. What the file said didn't matter, she hadn't shot him dead, she'd saved him. Now, hopefully, she'd never have to see him again.

Standing, the answers clutched in her right hand, she jogged from The Eye and back to the infirmary.


	3. Crossing Boundaries

**Disclaimer: **My name is not Fox, I do not own this show. I am so glad RN I am not Fox actually… otherwise you'd all be at me with flames and angry mob behaviour! lol

Keeping Distance

_1 Week Ago…_

Elizabeth Shannon and Malcolm Wallace stood at a work desk, either side of it, the plex between them turned sideways so they could both read it. A single pad of paper sat beside it listing the four consistent symptoms their patients were showing. Black rash, high fever, heavy head and a throaty cough. They flicked through their collection of common diseases, brushing one off after the other, determined to go through every condition known to man, from most to least likely, until they found an answer. Elizabeth sipped from a glass of water. "This is a good match," she said as they paused on a skin condition. "Black rash, coughing, fever, disorientation."

Malcolm shook his head. "They aren't disoriented. This morning Mr. Abbott asked me to remind him he needs to water his Lilly of the Valley – it's an endangered species." He read a bit more. "Plus this spreads by contact with a plant that isn't found here in Terra Nova. It could be OTG but I have yet to come across it." He clicked 'next page' on the plex with a sigh. "They're getting worse every moment we stand here. I thought a bad strain of the flu at first but the rash, the severity, it doesn't fit."

"You're right Dr. Wallace," a much younger voice slapped some papers down on the table and both doctors looked up at the young intern. Skye tapped the paper. "It's a strain of influenza, but one we haven't seen in almost 20 years."

Malcolm turned the paper around and flicked through it, a look of realization dawning on his face, and then a small smile. He handed Elizabeth the papers and then hurried off out of the infirmary. Elizabeth watched him go before she read the papers. "Cariatic Flu?" It took her a moment to understand and then she nodded. "It fits. Of course it fits." She beamed at Skye. "Our world was no good for it, no untreated water, but here – the humidity, the rains last week, the dirt." Skye nodded. "How did you work it out?"

Skye bit her lip a little, trying to formulate a good lie while playing up being coy, and just shrugged. "I think I must have read it somewhere. Then I just went to The Eye and threw names at it until this came up." She chuckled. "I thought it was called Carrier Flu at first. The Eye gave me a paper on pigeons." It was disturbing how good she'd become at lying in the last few years.

Elizabeth laughed. "Close enough." At those words Malcolm returned carrying eight vials of greeny-coloured liquid. "Is that all we have?" Her smile slipped a little.

Malcolm nodded. "It should be enough, but just in case, I'd like to administer only half doses. That way w…"

Skye cut him off. "It says on the third page," she practically swiped the pages from Elizabeth's hand but Dr. Shannon didn't protest. "No, sorry, fourth page." She held it out to Dr. Wallace. "If mixed with ground painkiller tablets and given twice a day for two weeks, it works just as effectively, and you could easily make enough for 20 people from those vials."

Malcolm smiled and took Dr. Shannon's keys to the medicine cabinet as she held them out to him. He left in the direction of the painkillers and Elizabeth looked at Skye. "I think it's about time the colony appreciated your flare for research. I'm going to tell the Commander."

Skye's smile fell easily. The Commander… the man who Skye had seen as her father for many years hadn't spoken to her since they'd returned from the forest. She understood she'd done wrong not telling him about Deborah, but she felt sure she'd regained his respect after saving him from Lucas, but it appeared not. They'd barely spoken four words since that day 3 months earlier. "It's my job. You know, intern, does all the silly obvious stuff, like cleaning up. Anyway, I didn't do this for admiration, I did this for Terra Nova." Her head sunk a little. "I feel I owe them that after everything…"

Elizabeth smiled and touched her shoulder. "No one blames you for what you did to save your mother Skye, no one can say they would have done any different, and you deserve to be proud of yourself for this. Your initiative, your drive, doing this all by yourself," another pang of guilt hit Skye. Great – just when she thought she'd got rid of it after dealing with Lucas. "It just assures me I made the right choice giving you this internship." She glanced up as one of the nurses called out to her. "Now, back to work." Skye smiled again. "Once Malcolm's had these tablets made up, will you join my family for dinner? Maddy's cooking to try and impress Mark so this should be elaborate."

Skye nodded. "I'd like that. Thanks." Elizabeth smiled and left as Skye's head hung again. She knew she'd done well, the right thing, and all that Dr. Shannon had said – so why did she still feel wretched inside?

…

_3 Months Earlier…_

Lucas Taylor's head throbbed when he awoke, and his chest didn't rise as far as it should, his breathing a little constricted. He opened one eye in the late afternoon light and looked down at the thick white bandage wrapped around him now. Another bound his shoulder up, digging in under his armpit, not painful just a little uncomfortable. "What th…"

"Don't move just yet." The tone was bored, but familiar, and Lucas glanced up at the girl leaning against a tree nearby, chewing on an apple and watching his every move. She glanced at her watch. "The stitches have been in for about 40 minutes. I recommend an hour before you try to move, and even then, no fast movements." She tapped her left hand against her knee and Lucas' eyes followed the movement to the gun in her hand, pointing right at him, safety on but her finger resting gently on the trigger. She seemed more than ready to shoot him again if he tried anything.

He may not be able to move, but he still had words, and his classic cold sneer. "Been playing doctors and nurses have we Bucket?"

She scowled. "I am a trained medical practitioner, I spend 4 days a week saving people's lives, what do you spend four days a week doing Lucas? Planning your next cold, heartless, selfish play?" She bit into her apple again. "You hungry?"

"Like you'd give me food anyway."

Skye cast her eyes skyward. "If I wasn't going to give you anything then why would I ask?" She reached into her backpack and fished around inside for a bit. "You know, you creeped me out before, but I think I prefer creepy Lucas to paranoid 'everyone's out to get me' Lucas." She found another apple and rolled it towards him.

As it came to a stop near his arm he picked it up and half-heartedly cleaned it on his shirt. "It's not paranoia if it's true." He glanced sideways at her. "Unless you've forgotten that you shot me, twice, just yesterday." He bit into the fruit and Skye glanced away. He failed to hide a smirk. "Your guilty conscience hurting you dear sister?"

She frowned, a deep hate-filled frown, and shook her head. "I told you before you tried to shoot me t…"

He cut over her. "I never would have shot you." The words were soft, but clear, and every inch of them stung with honesty. Skye didn't even have to question if she believed him or not, she just did.

"Nonetheless, before that incident, I told you – I'm not having your blood on my hands. I'm not having anyones. You may be okay with killing people but I'm not." There was finality in her tone and thankfully Lucas noticed it. He didn't say any more. Finishing her apple she tossed it into the forest beyond and pushed herself to her feet. "Fifteen minutes and you'll be free to go on your way." He kept eating his apple, ignoring her, or pretending he was anyway. "Are you going to the Sixer camp?"

"What do you care?"

"You'll need your wounds redressed, I'm sure you can do that, but you'll also need the stitches replaced at least once a month. I can give you a month's worth of dressings and painkillers now, but that's all. I'll need to be in contact again in 30 days."

He nodded. "Snakehead Falls."

Skye narrowed her eyes. "You live at Snakehead Falls?" He shook his head. "Why there then?"

"Because that's where I'll be okay?" There was a growl in his voice and Skye suddenly remembered – the sketching on the rocks.

"You'll never re-open the rift." She muttered matter-of-factly. He said nothing again. "Fine, I'll see you again in 30 days. When I arrive I'll whistle like this," she gave a loud and obvious whistle. Lucas momentarily wondered if anyone else had just heard it, but figured he didn't care if they had anyway, the worst they could do was hurt Skye or lock him in the Brig and right now neither seemed too bad. "Good luck Lucas." But her tone was emotionless… she didn't wish him luck at all.

"And you too Bucket." He replied just as spitefully as she walked away from him. Tossing his half-eaten apple angrily Lucas moved to stand but the pain was too much and he fell back down, glancing at the bag Skye had left behind, the bag of painkillers and dressings. It was just a plain, blue backpack but Lucas reached out a hand and drew it to him. Then, shoving it under his head, he laid back and stared at the sky.

* * *

><p><em>A big thank you to flimmer, AlexisSalvatore17, miaparker (whose story Affections is brill), Jemmz and EmtheUnicorn (who I am sooo not stalking on Tumblr! Lol) for their reviews. Please, please review if you can, even if it's just 'this is good' or 'this sucks compared to other peoples stories about lucket' (trust me, I know!) I love to hear people are reading this. A quick part 3 as I prepare for a busy weekend. No update until Monday so have a good Lucket-filled weekend all. Cheers guys!<em>


	4. Toeing The Line

**Disclaimer: **Dear ownership. Can I hath thee? I shall buy you for… um, what have I got? Um… $35? It's Australian dollars so that's like, what? $103 American? lol

Keeping Distance

_2 Months Ago…_

Skye used to love Snakehead Falls, back when it had been her escape, when she'd been naïve enough to be enamored by the drawings on the rock face. She'd so wanted to understand them. Now, as she sat in the valley at the base of the falls, staring up at the drawings, she despised them. Who'd done them, what they meant, why they were here – she hated all of them. She just frowned at them, patiently waiting for the man behind them, a small cardboard box of painkillers and bandages sitting on the rocks beside her with her hand-held medical kit. She'd removed her shoes and stuck her feet in the water at first, but the wind had picked up and turned the water cold, so now she just had her feet tucked up beneath her, eyes scanning the surrounds, listening to the Howlers in the trees beyond.

"Been here long?"

Skye didn't jump when his voice appeared from nowhere, she kept her cool, pretending she'd heard him and just didn't pay him any heed because she simply didn't care. "Long enough."

He stepped down the small series of rocks and came to the water's edge, taking a seat himself on a small boulder nearby, close enough to Skye to irk her but far enough that she didn't have to move away to avoid his touch. "I assumed you meant us to meet at the top of the Falls. It took me a bit to get down here after I located your call." There was no smarminess in his tone and as Skye looked at him she saw him cringe and grab at his side. Clearly he was in too much pain to be a jerk. She would have felt proud she finally got him to shut up, had she not felt so guilty, still worried at any time he could go and she'd have done it – she'd have killed a man.

"I thought you might like being near these more," she motioned up to his drawing that glowed in the sun before she turned to the bag of painkillers and fished out a bottle. She tossed it to him and he caught it easily in his left hand, twisting the bottle open with his teeth and shaking two pills into his lap. Skye watched him. "Can't move your right arm?" He shook his head and she stood. "How's your side?"

"Better, it's just the arm." He cringed a little, swallowing the pills dry and recapping the bottle. He looked up at her as Skye reached for his right arm and held it out straight. He had to grit his teeth to avoid looking in as much pain as he felt. "Not helping Bucket."

"The bullet went right through on your side, I found the exit wound, but I never found the one in your shoulder." She turned his arm so his palm faced out and he let out a soft 'ugh'. Skye laid his hand back in his lap. "I brought the bullet extractor from the infirmary this time." She started back to her supplies. "You can lay down if you want, or sit up, I don't mind but you're going to have to lose the shirt."

"Oh Bucket, I like it when you're forward."

She sighed and cast her eyes skyward. "Two painkillers and he's back." She turned around holding the bullet extractor, a bottle of isopropyl alcohol, and a rather large needle. "Trust me – you're not gonna like me when I'm done here." She gave a cold smile. "Now lose the shirt."

…

_1 Month Ago…_

__"Skye!"

Shouldering her bag of medical supplies, Skye turned, smiling warmly at the guy jogging towards her. "Hey. I thought you had cleaning duties?"

Josh pointed at her. "I thought you had cleaning duties too?" He grinned as he drew to a stop in front of her. "You sweet-talk the Commander into getting you out of it?"

"Something like that," she lied, still not keen to share that she and the Commander had yet to talk. "I'm on a mission from your mom so," she thumbed behind her with a smile. "I better go."

With a smile Josh nodded. "You better go." He agreed. As Skye started to move away, a slight smile etched to her face, he spoke again. "Hey, what you doing tonight?" She turned, biting her lip a little, giving a brief shrug. "Wanna hang out at Boylan's and talk about nothing?"

Skye grinned. "Yeah, sounds good." She took a few steps away from him. "Um, 6?" Josh nodded back. "Okay, I'll see you then." Then, giving a weak wave, she started back in the direction of her work, her way out of Terra Nova, with a new smile clinging to her features.

…

"Done." Skye taped the new bandage down and stepped back, recapping the rubbing alcohol and gathering her supplies up again. Lucas gave the shoulder a light roll but nothing hurt too much thankfully. She put her stuff away then returned to him with the box. "A month's worth of painkillers, bandages and plasters – as before."

Now he wasn't in so much agony, the bullet removed that had lodged in the Sternoclavicular joint, where his collarbone met his sternum; the closest he hoped he'd ever get to being shot in the chest, now he felt a lot more defensive. A lot less eager to play nice with this girl who he couldn't believe he'd so readily trusted so often, and now seemed to rely on, as much as he hated it. "You never said what the catch was," he started as he pushed himself to his feet gingerly, leaving the box in her hands as he eyed her down. She frowned heavily. "The catch – what I have to do to repay this."

Skye shook her head. "Nothing. I told you, I'm not a murderer, just don't die and you've done your bit." She pushed the box between them and Lucas was forced to take it. "I've got to get home."

"To your sweet mother?" Lucas muttered scornfully. "And our dear father?" She glared at him and Lucas chuckled. "Managed to converse more than three sentences with him since you killed me?"

"I didn't kill you!" Skye replied quickly. She took a breath and calmed herself down. "And the rest – that's not your business. You just… you stay away from Terra Nova, let's call that my catch. You stay away from Terra Nova and your next dose of painkillers won't be cyanide pills in disguise, okay?" She picked up her medical kit and started past him. He held out a hand and stopped her and she raised her eyes to him with a frown. "What now?"

With a light smile, a flash of something in his eyes for her to see, a mischievousness it seemed, he squeezed her arm gently and pressed a kiss to her forehead, just above her right temple. "My love to Deb, my sweet Bucket." Then he let her go. Skye took three small steps away from him as he just turned away to pick up his discarded shirt and with a quick breath she managed to walk away, breathing hard. Setting her jaw she started quickly up the side of the rocks and into the forest, aiming for home… or maybe more to get away from Lucas Taylor as quickly as she could.


	5. Traversing Gulfs

**Disclaimer: **$37 US and I can own you?

**Dedicated: **To Emily and her impossibly perfect math…

Keeping Distance

_1 Month Ago…_

Skye paced at the top of Snakehead Falls, fingering the backpack on her right shoulder, other hand shoved in her jeans. She chewed at her lip, the memory of her conversation with Josh barely 20 minutes earlier the only thing keeping the anger off her face. But if he didn't show in the next five minutes she was going to hurt him. A moment later she heard rustles and she turned, glaring at him as he stepped onto the rocks out of the forest, feeling much better she should tell as that arrogant swag returned to his step. He stopped moving as he saw her cold frown. "I'm late?" There was a cheekiness to his tone but Skye was nowhere near amused.

"Here," she held the box out then lay it on the ground between them. "I have places to be so…"

She started her escape when Lucas spoke again. "You never asked how I was doing? What kind of nurse are you?"

She turned with a glare. "You have a new nurse," he frowned. Skye took a breath. "Reynolds was out by Outpost 10 last week, said he saw Carter and someone that looked a lot like you, but no one believed him." Lucas gave her a classic blank look. "Are you gonna deny you're back with the Sixers?"

He shook his head. "Why should I?" He moved forward and picked up the box and as he did Skye stepped back. He left the box where it was but fished out the painkillers and took two. "What did my father say when he heard?"

Skye shook her head. "He didn't believe you were still alive." Her voice was soft, the sentence more breathed out than said.

"Probably didn't want to." He recapped the painkillers and tossed them back into the box. "I imagine my father has never been so happy at the idea of a Terra Novan killing someone. He must be so proud of you dear sister."

Skye scoffed. "You know for a genius you've really got no idea have you?" He glared but Skye didn't back down. "If I hadn't shot you then I have no doubt he would have let you finish him off. Probably feels you'd be free then, you could stop hating yourself if he was gone, because that's who he is. He puts everyone at Terra Nova first and if you knew him you'd know that."

He growled. "You're telling me you know my father better than I do?"

"Yes!" Skye reacted quickly, a knee-jerk reaction she always got when she defended those she cared about. She'd do anything for people she loved. "Because I spend time with him, I listen to him talk, and I care whether he lives or dies. You – you don't care about anyone but yourself. That's why you're back with the Sixers isn't it? You planning another assault on Terra Nova?" Lucas just shook his head. "Please, why should I believe that?"

"Because that's the catch."

Her eyes narrowed at him for a moment and then she shook her head. "I'll hold my breath until you invade, I'm sure it's only a matter of time."

"You don't trust me Bucket?"

He moved forward, reaching out a hand to touch her, and she stepped back instinctively. "Of course I don't." She raised a hand and smacked his arm away. "Do you even see how messed up you are? The fact you fooled the Hope Plaza psych evaluation into believing that you are anything more than a high-functioning sociopath is some sort of miracle." Her voice rose as she backed away from him, not scared of him exactly, but hating the uncertainty. "I wouldn't trust you with Terra Nova anymore than I would your minions," she waved back in the direction of the Sixer camp. "Maybe you should see what painkillers they have."

"Bucket…" Lucas started menacingly. She shook her head and moved away. "Don't you walk away from me!" She didn't stop though and before Lucas could talk again Skye was gone.

…

_3 Days Ago…_

__"Dr. Shannon!" Skye's hair got a little fluffy when she was stressed out and right now it was like a puffball. She helped a nurse with a bucket for a vomiting young man and then went back to her original job of issuing glasses of water to violently coughing patients. Elizabeth appeared from a room nearby, a blood splatter on her lab coat, and Skye froze at the sight of it. She only woke from her trance when Elizabeth said her name a second time. "I, um, bed four is complaining of severe abdomen pains."

Elizabeth nodded. "Okay, tell him I'll be right there."

She moved to change her lab coat and Skye went with her. "Blood?" Elizabeth nodded. "Is bed 7 going to be okay?"

Dr. Shannon looked up at Skye. "I don't know." She pulled on a new lab coat. "The new patients are stretching our limits and we can't keep up with this. We don't have enough tablets to cure everyone, all we can do is slow down the dying process, we…" Dr. Shannon coughed back a wave of emotion. "We have to prepare for casualties."

It took Skye a moment to realize what that actually meant. "You mean, people are going to die, right?" Elizabeth nodded as Skye shook her head. "No, not again."

Dr. Shannon touched her arm. "If you can't handle this Skye then you can take a break. We'll resume the internship when we're on top of this."

"What? When Terra Nova's numbers are decimated by 60%?" Elizabeth's eyes dropped, telling Skye she was right, that they were holding off death without being certain of an answer. "The cure existed in 2149. Why don't we have enough vials?"

"We knew the risk when we closed the portal, it was my call." Some time through the conversation Commander Taylor had entered the infirmary. His steps were always light these days, like he no longer demanded attention, he just liked to watch and make sure everything was all right. Skye turned sharply but Elizabeth was more composed. Taylor looked down at Skye. "You're right miss Tate, there was a cure in 2149, still is – but that's gone now." His eyes turned to Elizabeth. "Dr. Wallace mentioned you have a system?" She nodded. "May I see it?"

Skye followed as Elizabeth led the Commander around the infirmary. She paused first at the foot of bed 14 where a young woman lay asleep. Her black rash covered her arms but her face was clear. "Patients like Abigail here are greens, they're here for isolation, but they only require one tablet a week to keep them alive." The Commander nodded and they moved on to bed 23. "Mr. Tennyson is an orange, as are seven others that came in late last week, just after Malcolm finished the medication. His liver is failing, his rash is spreading quickly and he only sleeps these days. He can no longer talk. He requires one tablet 3 times a week to keep him alive." Finally they paused outside the private room of bed 7. "Then we have the red patients. They were the original twenty that we made the vial batches for. If it was just them we'd be well on our way to a cure, but we can't give them the full dosage any longer, we simply don't have enough." She didn't open the door and the Commander gave her a light frown and reached for it. "Sir, the rash covers 98% of his body. He coughs up blood on an hourly basis and we're forced to push water down his throat with a tube." The Commander looked at the name on the chart beside the door. Connor Tanner – a 27-year-old soldier in his security detail. Elizabeth frowned. "On the current system the reds require one tablet a day to keep them alive." She took a deep breath. "We have enough medication to keep all the patients here alive, just, for 6 weeks. After that they're on their own."

Skye held back a sob but the Commander paid her no heed. "Is there any other medication we can use?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "I consulted The Eye. The medication by James Hurley was patented in 2133 and became his property alone. When a child is born in 2149 they're injected with the cure, assuming their parents pay for it, before they leave the hospital. It's just taken for granted that Cariatic Flu is no longer a problem in western society – like TB or smallpox." She sighed. "We never even studied it at college." She glanced up. "There's no alternative to the Hurley drug, named NH-143, in existence."

The Commander's voice shook as he spoke. "Then we must prepare to lose people. Can you adequately contaminate the p…"

"We have to reopen the rift!" Skye said aloud before her lips could stop her.

The Commander turned calmly. "I wish we could but have neither the knowledge nor the skill to do it."

"Lucas does."

Taylor just nodded. "Reynolds told you he thought he saw him?" He gave a light sigh. "My son is dead miss Tate. He is no longer able to help us. We're cut off from 2149 for good now."

Skye's voice shook as she finally spoke what she'd been waiting 3 months to say to the Commander. "Lucas is alive sir. He's alive because I treated him, I stole painkillers to give to him, and I've been to see him four times. He's very much alive and I know where he is."


	6. Chapter 1: A Sprat to Catch A Mackerel

**Disclaimer: **Ownership, go home, you don't live here!

Keeping Distance

Chapter 1;  
>A Sprat to Catch A Mackerel<p>

_Guilt upon the conscience, like rust upon iron, both defiles and consumes it, gnawing and creeping into it, as that does which at last eats out the very heart and substance of the metal.  
><em>Robert South

_The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness._  
>Victor Hugo<p>

_Present day…_

The waterfall splashed on the rocks to her left as Skye Tate stood, hands shoved in her pockets, just waiting. Her eyes surveyed the world around her, trying to take it all in at once, make sure only one set of footsteps were coming her way. But one? No, there were none. Skye sighed and moved to sit down when she heard the voice, barely more than a whisper, coming from where she couldn't tell. She turned a full 360 degrees before she heard it again and realized it was an echo coming from below her. She moved to the edge of the rocks and down at the bottom of the waterfall stood Lucas, looking up at her, that smug smile on his face as ever. She frowned lightly then started down the rocks towards him. He moved to her and grabbed at her hand as she started down the last part of the rocks and rather than bothering to tug her hand away, she just let him, shaking him off gently when she reached the flat rock again. "Thank you." She muttered, knowing the least she could do was be decent, especially now she was going to call in a favour.

"You're more than welcome dear sister," Lucas replied, making it creepy again. Skye tried to ignore it. "I was surprised when I heard your whistle. A good surprised of course. But you told me last week that I'd never hear from you again."

"Yeah, well, last week I had no intention of talking to you ever again. I guess you're lucky that things change." She wandered towards the edge of the rocks, the edge slipperier than the flat, but Skye knew this area well. "They get worse actually." She turned her head and saw Lucas frown. "The disease I told you about – it was Cariatic Flu… is Cariatic Flu." She frowned. "People are dying and we don't have the means to control it, stop it, we're out of our depth." He frowned at her right back. "This is where you come in."

"I'm a physicist Bucket, not a chemist, you do know the difference right?" That mocking smile returned and Skye knew he couldn't care any less if he tried.

She tried not to get angry. "The cure lies in 2149. We need the rift reopened so we can get through."

Lucas scoffed and turned away. "I'm not telling you how to reopen the rift."

"Why not? I know you're working on it." He stopped walking away from her. "It's your life's work isn't it? The destruction of Terra Nova. Going back to 2149 will continue that dream."

He turned back to face her with a cold smile. "My dream is for my father to fall. I don't need 2149 to do that." He nodded towards her. "Especially not if you keep walking into my little games."

Skye frowned a little, sticking her hands in her pockets and turning around, narrowing her eyes at him. "Your little games? I just came to make sure you weren't dead. If you plan on picking up the games again then go ahead, but I'm not playing, you got that?" She started to move past him when Lucas reached out and grabbed her. "Let me go."

"You had 3 months of me doing as you wished Bucket, did you enjoy them?" Her eyes turned up to meet his and Lucas gave a soft, cold smile. Her eyes were so blue and he lost himself in them momentarily, remembering why he'd kept giving her chances, but he'd had enough of those now. It was his turn to call the shots again and he wasn't going to sway to her beauty anymore. "I'm all fixed now. You really think I'm going to keeping letting you do as you wish?"

Skye glanced away for a moment then gave a light smile. "Yes, I do." And with a quick movement she pulled the needle from her pocket and stuck it into his arm. Like the first time he never saw it coming and just growled as she sunk the last of the liquid into his arm. She shook him free and stumbled back quickly as he lunged towards her, but his feet failed, and she put an arm across his chest and shoulders to stop him falling. He gripped her wrist tightly and squeezed with all the strength he had but Skye didn't focus on the pain, she just moved them both to sit down, and the grip failed soon enough. "I'm sorry Lucas. I wish you could have done this by choice." As she spoke the sound of fighting rang out. Lucas' allies, what was left of the Sixers, had been hanging back waiting to make sure their leader was okay. The thing was Skye's men had been doing the same and now both moved. She crossed Lucas' arms over his chest and slid back away from him, watching him as he continued to glare at her, with all that was left of his energy. Sleep was quickly overtaking him. She re-pocketed the now empty syringe. "I really do." She laid a hand on his arm as his eyes closed and he passed out. Giving it a soft pat she turned her eyes up and waited for the fighting at the top of the Falls to stop.

…

Jim Shannon and Mark Reynolds flanked Skye as she entered the Command Base, Commander Taylor glancing up from his work, motioning for them to take a seat in the two seats that had been set out. Skye obliged but Jim politely declined, leaning against the Commander's desk, evidently very much at home in the place. Skye had felt at home there too once. Once. Now…

"Lucas?" The Commander asked, leaning back in his chair, eyes dancing between the three of them, never really settling even when Mark started to talk.

"The Brig sir. Dunham and Reilly are watching him but he's still out of it."

"Elizabeth checked him but she can't stay. She thinks he'll be awake in about half an hour." Jim consulted his watch as he said that, a stickler for exact details, part of what made him a good sheriff. Compassion was the other one. Jim had been the first one to the bottom of the Falls when the fighting had ceased. He'd helped Skye to her feet and squeezed her shoulder, telling her she'd done well, a natural father but not the person she wanted doing that to her. He'd refused to come although Jim had invited him. Skye knew the Commander couldn't face Lucas yet. "The infirmary hasn't got the manpower to have someone watch him though."

The Commander knew what was about to come out of Skye's mouth before she could even open it. "You volunteer miss Tate?" Skye just nodded wordlessly and it was met with a curt shake of his head. "No."

"Sir, I kept him alive OTG, without armed support. I can do this." Taylor sighed a little. "Please, no one else will take the job, he wouldn't let anyone else near him anyway." She left out the fact she felt sure now that he'd try and kill her on sight too. That wouldn't boost her argument. Her pitiful attempts to prove to the Commander that she was still an asset to Terra Nova, not an untrustworthy kid who acted on a whim, would be skewed if she mentioned that. "I can do this."

Begrudgingly the Commander nodded, just a brief one, and Skye fought back a smile. But he wasn't done. "But miss Tate – you watch yourself. One slip up and I'll appoint the Sixer's medic." Jim made a noise in the back of his throat that told the Commander to ask another question. "The Sixer medic was one of the two that got away?"

Jim nodded. "Him and Carter. Carter kept his distance but the medic just overpowered Harrison. He's got a broken nose and feels guilty." The Commander gave a light sigh. "We tracked them for a bit but they're good on their feet and we lost them in a river. But, at last sight, they were headed for the Badlands, and they weren't making that half obvious either. They're going to Mira and the Phoenix Group."

"What I don't get is why they stayed back. I refuse to believe in loyalty among Sixers, especially not to Lucas, he's not one of theirs. And Mira's refusal to stay?" The Commander rubbed his chin as he leaned back against his desk. "It's obvious the Badlands has something we don't understand in it, something valuable to the Phoenix Group and Mira, but what?" He shook his head and wiped his hand over his eyes. "Just when you think you understand Mira, she does something, and you're back on the back foot." Jim nodded silently in agreement. "Shannon – interview the Sixers. It's likely they won't talk, just move them to the sun for an hour or two, then try again if that's the case." Jim nodded. "Reynolds. Join the search party headed back to Snakehead Falls. We need to find Lucas' camp if we're going to get this Portal reopened." He nodded and left the base. Skye waited patiently for her orders but none came and the Commander turned his eyes back to his paperwork. "Dismissed."

Touching Skye's arm, Jim walked with Skye back outside, but didn't say a thing until they got to the bottom of the stairs. Then he turned her to look at him. "Give him time." Skye wasn't the least bit surprised by Jim's untold ability to read the situation around him. She just looked to the ground. "This is how he deals with things – by shutting everyone out and musing things over. He came around before, he will again."

Skye's eyes snapped up. "But he's not shutting everyone out. He's just shutting me out again." She shook her head. "I understood last time, I screwed up, I caused the invasion of Terra Nova." Emotion clogged her words and she choked back a sob. "But this time? I saved his life!" Her voice rose a little and broke at the end of the sentence. "Why am I an outsider again for that?" She looked to the ground again. "I never asked to be in the middle of this," Jim's frown deepened as Skye looked up again so she elaborated. "This Taylor war, between Lucas and the Commander – I never asked to be in this. Why me? Why does it have to keep being me? The Sixer spy, Lucas' little plaything, the Commander's spy inside occupied Terra Nova… the gunman." She fought back her emotions with a deep breath. "I don't want this on my conscience." Her jaw shook. "But it's my cross to bear now isn't it? I gotta do it."

"You don't have to do anything Skye. You don't have to be a martyr. Lucas Taylor pulled you into this again, but he doesn't call the shots anymore, you can get out."

Skye lips tightened as she bit back more tears. "He still calls the shots. Can anyone else open the Portal? Until we get the antidote, get back to 2149 and find the cure, he calls the shots." A sob finally escaped. "I just wanna know – why me? The forgiving me, the using me, the second chances."

"He's just playing games with you." Jim looked back towards the Brig. "I don't think you should go in there today."

"He's not the only one though is he?" Skye continued, as if she'd never heard Jim. "'Miss Tate'? What is that? He makes me feel like… like an employee or something." Skye wiped her eyes furiously with the back of her hand, finally hearing Jim's words, and she shook her head. "I can do this. I have to." She looked up at Jim, eyes blazing, still furious behind teary eyes. "No one else should have to sit by their father's side and watch him die from this disease that has a cure." Jim already knew about Skye's father and the Sincyllic fever, so he understood the reference to Mira's medicine, he didn't need to think it through. "Over my dead body that's ever happening again." She set her jaw and pressed her lips tight, staying strong as ever, looking very much the soldier's daughter that she was.

"Your father would be proud of you Skye." Jim touched her arm. "I know the Commander is." He looked toward the Brig again. "Okay, good luck, but don't exert yourself in there okay? You feel overwhelmed, Lucas wakes up and says something you can't deal with, you leave straightaway. You don't let him get to you – he's not worth it." Skye nodded and Jim let her arm go, giving her a brief smile before he started towards the Sixers who'd been chained to posts just inside the main gates, guarded by six sour-looking soldiers who'd made it clear a bit earlier that they wouldn't mind the job of smacking their captives into talking. Skye meanwhile turned to face the Brig. She took a deep breath, breathed out slowly through thin lips, and cast her eyes to the sky, blinking furiously until all the tears were gone. Then, wiping her face with the bottom of her t-shirt, she gave a light nod, mentally in the zone she needed to be finally, and started towards the Brig.


	7. Chapter 2: Lost and Found

**A/N: **Thank you everyone for the awesome reviews. I'm far too lazy to review individually, I am an awful person (lol) but I do love every one of you for the continued support. Extra love to vaarna who is the unspoken queen of Lucket, to Em and AlexisSalvatore17 and everyone else who's hopped on board. I'm glad you're all enjoying the storyline, 'BAMF' Skye (ha ha!) and the impending showdown of Taylor vs. Taylor (which is coming next chapter!) but until then... anyone for a chapter of Lucket interaction?

Keeping Distance

Chapter 2;  
>Lost and Found<p>

The main door to the Brig creaked a little as Skye opened it and stepped through into the main area. Inside stood Reilly and Dunham, deep in one of their usual conversations about nothing, the younger soldier holding his ground though Reilly clearly had the upper hand. "What are you arguing about now?" Skye asked with a smile, picking up the medical supplies that had been left on a bench just inside the doorway. She checked everything she needed was inside as the pair finally drew their conversation to a close.

"We're playing 'would you rather?'" Reilly replied. "And Dunham just had a go at me for choosing 'be eaten by a Carno' over 'kiss Casey Durwin'."

"It just seems unfair, that's all – choosing death over a simple kiss." Dunham replied, shrugging lightly. Skye grinned despite the sombre mood she'd just been in. "Would you choose death over kissing Casey Durwin Skye?"

Skye nodded. "Any day." Reilly laughed and Dunham shook his head. "My turn for you Dunham: would you rather… kiss Casey Durwin or kiss Tom Boylan?"

Dunham just frowned. "You suck – I'm not playing anymore." He slunk back to the other side of the door they were guarding and stood there silently, not looking at either of the girls.

Reilly just laughed. "You here to make sure the captive hasn't died on us?"

Skye smiled. "While quietly hoping he has? Yeah, pretty much." Hooking the supplies bag through the crook of her elbow she stepped back as Reilly opened the door, glancing into the darker room, seeing the figure laying on a slab just to the right. "Thanks."

"Just yell if you need us. Dunham will burst in there doing his best superhero impersonation." Despite Reilly's comic tone, and Dunham's frown, Skye knew she just had to say one thing too loud and they'd bust in. No one trusted Lucas Taylor – with very, very good reason too.

"I'll remember that." She touched Dunham's arm with a smile and he managed a small one back as Skye glanced at Reilly. "Don't make him cry." She said quietly before she stepped inside. She waited, watching Lucas' still form, until the door slammed shut behind her and woke her from her reverie. Then she stepped towards him and crouched down beside him, finding his arm and attaching the blood pressure monitor to it. She turned it on and the blue screen sprang to life, showing his heartbeat, giving her his blood pressure. It was a little low but on the normal side, more like resting than unconscious, and she let go of his arm quickly as she realized that. He was no longer unconscious. Tentatively she spoke. "Lucas?"

He was laying on his front, face turned away from her, arms hanging over the sides of the slabs. She didn't hear him at first. "Hello Bucket." Then his head turned and he faced her, jade-green eyes staring at her, malice evident in them. "Checking to make sure I'm not dead?" Skye frowned as she realized he must have heard her. "You must be so disappointed."

She managed a light scoff despite her uneasiness under the gaze of his eyes. "Please," then, resolutely, she went back to work. "If I wanted you dead then guess what – you'd be dead." She fished into the supply bag for a stethoscope. She put the buds in her ears and pushed herself to her feet. "All I did was knock you out so we could get you back here, that's all."

"Oh I know that now." There was a tired slur in his voice and he was groggy. His hand didn't move as she stepped towards him and lifted the back of his collar, sliding the stethoscope inside so she could listen to his breathing. He didn't flinch at the cold. She guessed he was so numb still that he didn't actually feel it. "But when you were plunging that needle into my arm I thought maybe this clean slate was all an illusion."

Skye just shrugged, hearing his lungs were working fine, and pulled the stethoscope out of her ears, dumping it back in the bag. "Maybe it was just the shock you were outsmarted again?"

As she glanced down at him she saw his cold smile. "It wasn't smarts, you've been getting lucky, and that's all." She glanced away with a light shake of her head but he wasn't done. "I know what you are Bucket," she looked back at him with a cold frown. "You're just a scared little girl who's in way over her head."

Something in Skye snapped at that and she retorted just as harshly. "And you're just a lonely little boy who hopes that his desperate moves will one day bring his mommy back."

They were both silent for a moment and then a dangerous tone came to Lucas' voice. "Don't you dare bring my mother into this."

"I won't when you stop killing in her name!" Skye's last line burst out too loud and silence fell about the room until the locks on the door clicked and it opened. Reilly's figure appeared in the doorway but before she could even talk Skye spoke again. "It's fine." Again she snapped and Reilly looked a little shocked. Skye's tone softened. "I'm fine Laura, really." She tried a smile and eventually Reilly nodded, stepped back and shut the door. Skye's eyes returned to the heart rate monitor until she managed to find her voice again. "It doesn't matter what you think of me, what you want to call me, as long as you can reopen the rift and re-establish the portal, you can call me whatever you like." She took a seat again on the floor beside him.

"And why would I do that?"

Skye's eyes rose to Lucas' and he saw the dangerous gleam. He knew she meant business. Somehow he knew this was a fight he would not be allowed to win. "I don't care why. I don't care how, where, when… whatever." She glared at him almost without blinking. "None of that matters. The fact is – you're opening it." She unhooked the heart rate monitor and started putting it away, pulling out a notebook and pen and scribbling it what she'd checked and done. "There's no 'why' about it."

"Fine, if I'm doing it then what's in it for me?"

"That's something you can think about tonight before we go through the details tomorrow."

Lucas managed a condescending tone of his own. "We?" He chuckled cruelly. "You and the Commander right?" Skye nodded wordlessly. "Are you his right-hand girl now?" He finally found the energy and lifted his hand, catching Skye's chin as she tried to finish what she was writing. At the touch Skye reacted instantly, whacking his hand away and falling back away from him, brushing herself off and standing quickly as he spoke again. "Your father would be so proud."

The words, so similar to Jim's, suddenly sounded like the world's worst insult. She growled, unintentionally mirroring Lucas' own words from just moments earlier. "Don't you dare bring my father into this." She narrowed her eyes at him. "You don't know anything about him."

"I know what your mother told me about you and him. The good Corporal, how Sincyllic Fever claimed him, and all that other stuff your mother mentioned in her delirium." He shrugged. "Plus, you started this mentioning my mother, so fair game Bucket."

"Nothing between you and I is fair or a game Taylor." Skye returned, leaning against a post nearby, half hidden in the soft red darkness of the Brig. "I told you I wasn't playing anymore."

"I know… clean slate and all that." He watched her, talking quietly, and pushed himself to sit up. That was when Skye finally noticed the chain around his ankle. He had to pull to get the chain to stretch so he could put his left foot on the floor. He stretched his back but didn't stand. "Problem is that you know owe me a fall."

Skye actually started, frowning then raising her eyebrows again in quick succession, unsure just what she'd heard. "I'm sorry… what?"

"You owe me a fall. We had a clean slate and then you betrayed me. So now you're the bad guy. How does it feel?"

She scoffed softly. "It feels like you're full of it." She stepped forward and picked up her bag of medical supplies. "I owe you nothing." Putting it over her shoulder she glanced at him as she headed for the door. "I'll see what I can do about food for you. Until then you think about how no one around you is ever going to fall again at your command." She was halfway to the door when she heard Lucas' soft laugh. She turned quickly with a frown. "What?"

"You just gave me an idea for a condition Bucket." He raised his eyes to hers with a scary smile and that creepy whisper again. "Thank you."

Disturbed, and worried now what tomorrow would bring, Skye knocked on the door twice to let Reilly know she was ready to get out, as far away from Lucas as she could get; because right now she suddenly felt like she'd betrayed Terra Nova at his command all over again.

…

"Harper, it's Reynolds." Mark lowered his radio and waited for a reply. He glanced behind him at the two others waiting with him beside the rover. It was almost sundown and they wanted to be back at Terra Nova before it got dark – the last thing they needed was a Slasher attack.

"I've got you Reynolds. We've got it."

Mark grinned. "Taylor's hideaway?"

"We haven't got into it yet but there's definitely something here. Hold on." He fell silent and Mark waited patiently, leaning against the rover behind him, kicking back a little now he was the most senior of the men around the vehicle, his senior officer, Harper, leading the group to the west. It seemed he'd been in luck, not Mark who'd spent the last two hours finding nothing but dinosaur footprints and old Sixer tracks. He'd been hopeful they would lead him in the direction of Carter and the Sixer medic but they proved fruitless as they too headed in the direction of the Badlands. Whatever was out there, whatever it had to do with that ship prow, Mark wasn't too concerned. He'd be concerned about the Sixers again when the tracks led their old foe back towards Terra Nova. "Okay, we're in Reynolds. It looks good. Papers everywhere." Harper kept his finger on the call button but seemed to be talking to someone else. "Head back to Terra Nova Reynolds, it's almost nightfall, we'll bunker down here until morning. There's a lot of hiding places in here. I want everything." Reynolds didn't need to question Harper's thoroughness – his sister was in the Infirmary as a Grade Orange patient. "Harper out."

"Good luck sir. Reynolds out." He clicked his radio back into place on his shoulder and turned to the others. "Let's move out. We've got some good news for the Commander."


	8. Chapter 3: Palace Coups

**A/N: **This chapter is for RachelWannabe. The pick-up of Cariatic Flu by Lucas Taylor is indeed not an accident. Malcolm and Elizabeth would have worked out what it was in time but it's no lucky dip that a disease from 2149 has found it's way 85 million years in the past when there's been no signs of it before so stay tuned for an answer there. I'll just tell you that Lucas' knowledge isn't as simple as 'he's a genius'. As for Lucas' 'mental health', well it will be a cold day in hell before Commander Taylor excuses his son as some sort of mental unstable but Lucas' mental stability isn't as simple as Skye thinks it is. Bipolar is just too easy a word for Lucas. I prefer 'product of his environment' and a few flashbacks to Lucas' turn through Hope Plaza and the 2nd Pilgrimage in a few future chapters might shed some light on what I mean by that. I am glad you're loving it and your words inspire me so thank you so much and this chapter is for you because you wanted Taylor vs. Taylor interactions and I shall give it. Also a few answers on the Portal and Lucas' mission maybe (or maybe a few more questions? lol). Enjoy...

Keeping Distance

Chapter 3;  
>Palace Coups<p>

Skye stood quietly against the back wall of the Command Centre, her arms folded across her chest, one foot on top of the other, just waiting. The room held only two other people – the Commander himself and Jim Shannon who was glancing at her every so often to make sure she was okay. She suddenly wished she'd never had that outburst, breakdown moment the day before to Mr. Shannon. Though it had been good to get it off her chest she woke up this morning with the overwhelming fear that Jim would tell the Commander she wasn't ready for the job at hand and he should send her home to idly twiddle her thumbs and wait for others to solve Terra Nova's problems. No, she wouldn't have that – Terra Nova was her home and if it had problems she was going to do her best to make sure they were eradicated quickly. No matter what it took. Even if it meant listening to a morning of Lucas Taylor more than likely crowing about how he could open the Portal but wouldn't because what could he get out of it? It hadn't taken Skye long to realize Lucas Taylor's life revolved solely around Lucas Taylor. He didn't need anyone else.

"Commander?" Mark Reynolds' voice sounded from the doorway and three occupants of the room looked up as Reilly and Dunham led Lucas Taylor into the room. They sat him down in the Commander's wooden chair just in front of his desk, the same chair Skye herself had sat in just the day before, and then handcuffed him to it. Proper metal handcuffs from Jim's collection – despite the fact he wasn't being left alone with a 17-year-old girl this time Terra Nova had learned its lesson about how truly slippery Lucas was. No more plastic cuffs for him. The Commander nodded at the three soldiers once Lucas was settled and they left. Once they were gone the Commander moved to his desk and pulled out a file. He walked back around the table and held it out to Lucas. The younger Taylor merely looked at it with all the contempt he'd kept stored in himself for many, many long years.

"You found my home. Well done. Did you like it?" The spite and sarcasm came thick and fast and grated on Skye's every last nerve. She didn't move a muscle, worried what she'd do if she did.

"We did. I didn't see it but I hear it's nice." Commander Taylor leaned against his desk, putting the file down on it, and looked at his son. Untrained eyes would see a man filled with hate but Skye knew better and saw beyond the dislike was hurt and fear. "Did miss Tate tell you yesterday about why you're here?"

Lucas didn't move either. Both Skye and Lucas seemed shocked still by the whole situation, the façade of niceness, when secretly everyone in the room wanted to punch someone else in the face. "She did. You want me to re-open the Portal."

"Can you do it?" Jim spoke for the first time.

Lucas turned his jade-green eyes to him. "In theory – yes. In practicality, I don't know. I've never done it before." He turned back to his father. "Then again I made the Portal go both ways with only a box and rocks as a sketchpad so with real materials then who knows?"

"Your device to make the Portal go both ways?" Skye spoke at last. All eyes turned on her and she looked up at them, pushing herself up off the wall. "The material it was made from, it's not available in Terra Nova. Carbon graphite." Jim looked impressed. Both Taylors looked impassive. She ignored their looks and kept talking. It was a question she'd wanted to ask since she'd first seen the thing in Lucas' Sixer hut. "That stuff is worth millions in 2149 because it's so rare and durable. Practically indestructible with the right coating."

Lucas nodded. "It was coated in lycra-carbon-polyurithate… a flexible, indestructible and waterproof coating. 2110's best invention but very rare."

"You simply couldn't have bought in 2149 and it didn't come from here so where was it from?" She paused a few steps away from him. "The people you work for? The Phoenix Group?"

He gave a light condescending chuckle. "I don't work for the Phoenix Group. I don't work for Weaver. That buffoon couldn't organize a buck's party, let alone the takeover of Terra Nova." His eyes danced over the three people before him. "Well, maybe he could have learned, if he hadn't been eaten by a Carno." He gave a cold smile. "Carter told me the Phoenix Group weren't amused by that stunt. Me? I'm slightly impressed." He glanced at Jim and the look of surprise on Jim's face. "I don't work for the Phoenix Group, I don't even work for Weaver's people, I merely worked with them to get what I wanted."

"The enemy of my enemy…" Jim started.

Lucas shook his head. "Is just another person in my way." He looked at Skye. "The box – very intuitive Bucket might I add – came from the Holder Corporation. The people Weaver worked for. Mira brought it through on the Sixth Pilgrimage, a store of information collected and correlated from Hope Plaza's end. Mix it with what I'd learned from this end, put it all together in The Eye," he gave Skye a cold smile and she averted her eyes, suddenly feeling dirty. "And hey presto – Portal goes both ways now." He looked back at Jim. "I'm not sorry they're dead, the ones you met anyway, most likely Holder's PR people. Maybe it's a shame; they were very good at spinning stories. But enough stories because I don't care about what they wanted."

"What did they want?"

"To control the world." Lucas looked up at his father and the Commander's question with a hint of contempt still edging his voice. "Control the past, control the future. It's that simple. Isn't it always about control father?" There was something in Lucas' voice now that Skye didn't understand. A deeper understanding. She narrowed her eyes at him but didn't speak. "In 2127 a strange anomaly was discovered by the scientific group we now call Hope Plaza. They were small fries then and didn't understand at first they were looking at a link to the past."

"We don't need a history lesson Lucas – we all know this."

"Do you want to know what the Holder Corporation are up to or not?" Jim said nothing and Lucas continued. "Then shut up and let me talk." He turned his eyes back to his father. "The Holder Corporation had money, a lot of money, and saw what others couldn't. Others thought Hope Plaza were nuts, they were all still focused on saving the world we had, like the future was still there to be hoped for. Morons." He scoffed a little. "Holder's people had long given up and then Hope Plaza turned up with this, this something, and Holder jumped on it. Three years later the first Portal opened, backed by Holder money, and a drone was sent through." He turned now to look at Skye. "The little drone that sits in the middle of Hope Square right here in Terra Nova. A testament to Hope Plaza's achievements? No… a testament to the fact that Holder have always been in control here and always will."

"They were who General Pilbrick referred to when he came through?" The Commander asked.

Lucas gave a brief nod. "I'm glad you remember him Commander – I'll come back to him very soon." He cleared his throat a little then continued. "Hope Plaza got a little big in its britches in 2134 and started to cast out Holder's people but they couldn't distance themselves that well, see they hired humans, and all humans can be bought. Even Hope Plaza's people; as noble as they are." Jim glanced away, knowing full well Hope Plaza could be bought, and his backpack of money seemed to have nothing on what this infamous Holder Corporation had. "So Holder began to infiltrate again. Then, in 2137, they knew it was time to send through a person. A living breathing hero." Lucas looked up at his father. "They chose the great Commander Taylor, war hero, survived countless battles that others would have fallen at. He'd lead the way to this brave new world." He gave a light scoff and lowered his eyes to his one free hand. "As soon as Holder heard that they knew they needed someone on the inside. They got hold of records of people intended for the 2nd and 3rd Pilgrimages. They needed a scientist, someone with a high IQ, and they narrowed the list down to four – myself included." He smiled softly to himself. "I still remember the day they found me. I'd holed myself up in Boston, just received the Hope Plaza news they wanted me, but I felt sure I wouldn't go. The mere idea I'd been recommended for the position disgusted me. Then Holder came. They asked what I needed to work for them, money or a dome, they'd get me whatever. I gave them a deal – I wouldn't work for them, I'd work with them, if they promised me one thing."

Lucas fell silent and for a long minute no one said a thing and then Skye pushed the word out between her teeth. "What?"

"That my father would fall."

Again no one spoke for a moment and then the Commander stood and walked around his desk, placing it between himself and his son. "And what of Holder's plans?"

"New land, new chances, new starts." He raised his free hand and spread it wide. "Not just a place to live – a place to farm. In the 21st century, during the global financial downturn, do you know what saved many jobs?" The Commander shook his head. "Mining. Iron ore and oil especially. The countries that survived the global financial crisis, China and the UAE who owned mining companies, Australia who rode on the back of mining trucks, they knew in times of crisis that the ground and what was beneath it was the answer."

"Terra Nova wasn't about a second chance to live? It was about a second chance to pillage and plunder and ruin? Bide our time?" Skye asked with shock. She'd never heard these allegations before. Unfortunately neither of the men with her looked surprised so Skye knew she was just another civilian left out of the loop.

"Our world has ten, maybe 15 years left before acid rain wipes it out and the lessers fall. The Holder Corporation knew what Terra Nova was for the present and for the future. A home for the future, but not for the lucky that get picked out of a ballot, for the special. The special they've chosen. And for now a source of income and power – a chance to overthrow the authoritarian government that rules now. A chance to lead."

"So they strip mine the land they have now, use what they find to make billions in the new world, fund a campaign to overthrow the current government and rule what's left of the future?" Jim clarified. Lucas nodded. "At which point they take over Hope Plaza, send through the people they want to survive, kill everyone else and start again." Lucas smiled. "Deciding who lives and dies right?" Another curt nod. "That's elitism."

"That's Darwinism – the strong survive and the weak fall." Lucas smiled coldly again. "And right now with my knowledge of this, of the Portal, everything, I'm the strong."

The Commander scowled. "What do you need to reopen the Portal?"

"A lot of luck." He was playing with them now he knew he had the upper hand. Skye also sensed his 'catch' was coming soon. "My own lab, the ability to go OTG, access to The Eye and all the raw materials I want." He shrugged. "I can't rebuild my carbon graphite machine but I can do my best right?"

"You can have the lab, and materials, the Eye… but you can't go OTG."

Lucas shook his head. "Then I'm no good then. The Portal is floating around this place, waiting to be tied down and reopened, and if I can't go OTG I can't find it. If I can't find it then I can give you all the calculations I want, build a little machine that might reopen it, but it will all be useless if I can't lock it down." He shrugged. "Worried the Phoenix Group will come back for me?"

"Yes." Jim answered quickly.

Lucas looked at him. "Then you're not as dumb as I thought." He turned his eyes back to his father slowly. "I want the Portal reopen too, just to know I can, that at any time I can escape here and go back through."

"Why would you want to go back there?" Skye asked with disgust. She hadn't seen the future since she was 11 but she could remember a dark, cold place. She hated the memory alone. The reality seemed even worse.

"Because Terra Nova is stifling." Lucas said quickly. He looked on edge, he really hated this place, Skye could see it in his eyes. "But don't worry, I won't go until I get my payment for opening the Portal, the thing I want most of all."

"We're not letting you go." The Commander said quickly.

Lucas shook his head. "That's not what I was going to ask for. I want what I've wanted from the start, what the Holder Corporation promised but failed to deliver." He raised his free hand and pointed a finger at the Commander. "I want to watch you fall."


	9. Chapter 4: Control

**A/N: **For aj81writing and vaarna for their unwavering support. I just have to say one thing: expect plenty of Lucas Taylor games!

Keeping Distance

Chapter 4;  
>Control (That 7 Letter Disaster)<p>

"What?" Skye was the only one who was still able to talk seemingly. Well, Lucas could too, that smug smile on his face told her that.

Though he didn't look at her he at least answered Skye's question. "I want you to fall father." He gave a scoffing laugh and continued with a tone as spiteful as he could manage. As Skye knew he was good at that, especially since he was emotionally decrepit, it was pretty spiteful. "Don't worry, I'm not about to ask you to die for your precious Terra Nova. After all – you'll go down a martyr that way and everyone loves those. No, you're going to tell every person in Terra Nova the truth and then you're going to leave."

"The truth?" Jim asked, frowning deeply at the handcuffed younger Taylor.

Lucas nodded. "The truth. About Terra Nova, about the great Commander, everything." He looked at the Commander. "You mentioned Philbrick before – I'm glad you did. See, he's part of it." He held up two fingers close together. "But just a little bit. See, you're going to tell your people everything. Philbrick, how you killed him and buried him in an unmarked grave, never telling a soul. The Holder Corporation – how you're all just little puppets," he moved his hand like a child playing with a marionette, "in their very fun game. The inevitable end because even though they're not geniuses like I am, they have all the technology, they'll get this Portal reopened. I give you less than a year before they're done." He pointed at his father and the mocking turn was lost, he turned serious again. "Then you'll tell them you suspected this the whole time but never shared this with them because you felt they'd panic. That they were too dumb to understand w…"

"I don't believe the people of Terra Nova are dumb." The Commander growled.

"No? And yet you told them lie after lie, that I ran away when really you cast me out, it sounds a lot like you underestimate them." The Commander frowned hard but didn't say anymore. "Not important. Point is you tell them everything then you step down from the job of Commander, leave Terra Nova, and never return."

"No!" Skye cried out before she could stop herself.

Jim seemed just as unamused but showed some self-control. "And then who takes over? You?"

Lucas shrugged. "I couldn't care less who takes over. It's not my job, being a leader, I wanted to be one once but I had a bad role model, he taught me what leaders really were." He glared at his father for a moment then gave a cold smile. "You could always ask your 2IC to take over. How is the good Lieutenant? Still dead?"

"You scumb…"

"Shannon!" The Commander put a hand up and held Jim back as he started towards the young man. Lucas just smiled coldly up at his would-be attacker. "I guess I have no choice do I? I do what you say or the Portal doesn't happen, right?"

Lucas nodded. "You really don't." He shrugged mockingly. "And you thought 118 days was hard? How much fun is it going to be when age means you can't even hunt anymore?"

Skye glared at Lucas. "You can't do this."

The young Taylor just glanced up at her. "I kind of just did…"

"I'm sure we can find a way to make you reconsider!" Skye shot back.

The Commander held up his hand towards her. "Enough!" He turned his eyes back to his son. "I'm sure you'll find some way to hold me to this so – fine. Do what you do, get that Portal reopen, and then I'll step down and leave Terra Nova, as you wish it." He turned his eyes to his desk, quiet so Skye knew he was hurting, but of course he'd never say so. "Get Reynolds and Reilly to take my son back to the Brig." Jim opened the door to the Command Centre and the pair walked in and unlocked Lucas, leading the arrogantly smirking young man from the room.

Skye moved towards the Commander's desk. "Sir, you can't do this."

The Commander didn't even move. "Don't tell me what I can and can't do miss Tate. This is my settlement for now and this is my responsibility."

Emotion cracked in Skye's voice. "But he can't win! You can't give up just bec…"

But Commander Taylor would have none of it. "Go," he raised a hand and waved her away. "Just go miss Tate. I have work to do."

Clenching her jaw as it threatened to shake, dismissed again, Skye nodded. "Yes sir." Then, trying awfully hard not to cry, she left the Command Centre quickly.

…

"Hey!" Mark and Laura stopped at the sound of Skye's voice and they both turned. The man between them didn't even look up. "Hey, I've got this," Skye drew to a stop beside Reilly and took Lucas' arm in her hands. "You can start your break early."

"Are you sure Skye?" Reilly asked, glancing at Mark. He just shrugged a reply.

Skye nodded. "Really. You've had to deal with Dunham all morning. You deserve a 5-minute head start on break." She let go of Lucas' arm with one hand and waved Reilly away. "Go on!" With a light frown and then a nod she took a few steps back and then left. As she left Skye tugged on Lucas' arm roughly. "Let's go Taylor."

"Did you miss me Bucket?"

Skye said nothing until they moved off the main street of Terra Nova and then Skye stopped. Mark shot her a look but stopped too. As they did Skye squeezed Lucas' arm tightly. "We've got a bit to talk about."

Lucas just glanced at her, a bored expression etched to his face. "Is that all you've got?" He gave her a cold smile. "You're trying to be scary Bucket – it's cute."

"Don't call me that and no, it's not all I have." She glanced at Reynolds. "Mark?" After a moment his grip tightened on Lucas' arm and the discomfort showed on Lucas' face eventually. "Want to play along yet?"

"No." Lucas growled. Mark continued and then he gave in. "Fine!" He snapped. Skye smothered a smile and Mark softened his grip. "What do you want?"

"I want you to find a new catch." He didn't even consider it for a second, he just shook his head, and Skye frowned. "There must be something else you want?"

Lucas gave her a look that said 'do you really want to know?' then just shook his head. "I want two things right now Bucket: to return to 2149 and to watch my father be knocked down from his 'god' status. The best day of my life will be the day someone I don't even know walks past muttering about how they hate my father because he let everyone down. Then they will know what I know – he's not all he makes himself out to be. He's a fraud!" The passion was obvious in his voice. Skye had no doubt that if he used this passion for something else he'd be amazing, but instead his passion was for misguided revenge, and that made him scary.

"You're going to destroy the future for a lot of people just because you're still living in 2138." Skye muttered, forcing out the words, the hurt and disgust evident in her tone. "Do you even care about anyone else?"

"I'm opening your precious Portal aren't I?"

"Because it suits you." She let go of his arm. "It suits your twisted, self-obsessed agenda." Lucas' eyes followed her as she stepped back away from him. "You know, I used to have faith that every single person was basically good – until I met you."

"I'm not sorry I can't be what you want me to be Bucket."

Skye shook her head. "It's not about me." She motioned to him with one finger. "I don't think you're even what you want to be." She lowered her eyes to the ground then glanced back at Mark. "You okay with him?" Mark nodded and tugged Lucas forward a tad just to show he was. "Good, because I can't even look at him right now." Then, shaking her head gently, Skye turned and walked away. Lucas just pursed his lips and watched her go with a light frown.

…

The smog outside the window was thick, there was no point even having a window really, but he'd somehow managed one. Of course it didn't open, that was a death wish, but it was a window. He wiped it with one hand and then turned his eyes back to the Plex in front of him, flicking his finger across the touchscreen to move to the next article. It was a bizarre obsession that had been there for months now, since he'd first seen that article with his family name on it, his father's name there in the headline. 'The great Commander'. Lucas Taylor glared at the next article. It was 2142, only 4 years since everything Lucas knew had gone to hell in a hand basket, and everything still hurt. It ached. It was a dull, heavy ache that never, ever went away. But he couldn't stop himself from remembering it. Reminding himself of it. The idea of letting the anger go, dealing with it, just felt a lot like he was pushing his mother away too.

The Taylor boy, now 18, had never felt like he belonged anywhere except when he was beside his mother. With brains instead of the brawn that his father wanted in a son, he was constantly told as a kid to train more, run more, want to be a soldier. His father was tough, supportive he said, but Lucas saw tough. He had a firm idea of what the young Taylor should be and Lucas had never lived up to that. Lucas knew this. He knew this from the moment he was old enough to understand why everything he said or did made his father groan or walk away. As a child all he'd ever wanted was to be Nathanial but he never could be – he wasn't strong and he had no interest in the 'finer points of war' as his father so called it. He couldn't be what his father wanted.

He hated himself so much for that.

It was only ever his mother that made it feel okay. Every night she'd sit with him before bed and they'd recite the periodic table when Lucas was seven or do some equations together when Lucas hit his teens. His mother loved science and she adored the simple idea her son loved it too. For Lucas it made sense and it made his mother so happy to see him do it. When Ayani smiled it was the most wonderful feeling in the world. She made him feel like he wasn't a screw-up. He wasn't alone.

Then, at 14, his father ripped all that way. The man who Lucas had always wanted to be but had only ever made Lucas feel guilty went and took away the woman who made him feel special, who made him what he was. The man might as well have let him die because a world without Ayani was a lot like that.

When the pain wore off, the loss, Lucas felt special. Just momentarily. He felt like he'd finally earned his father's worth, that he must have done something to make his father choose him, finally lived up to the looming shadow that had darkened his life for years. Young and foolish he'd gone to his father with the last thing he and his mother had been working on, a scientific theory on the power of star alignments and how they could tell more than just star signs, he thought that might make the man feel better. It didn't though. When Lucas had dropped it on Nathanial's desk the shattered man had taken one look at it, recognized his wife's handwriting, and scrunched it up. Lucas didn't get it back until the Commander left the room and then he pocketed it and never let it out of his sight.

After that the great Commander Taylor stopped talking to, stopped looking at, his boy. And Lucas knew he was wrong – he'd done nothing worth his father's love… it had all been his mother.

That was when the hate began. The hate that had burned within him but had always been directed at himself, making him second-guess what he could do, it turned to his father. Suddenly his genius was unleashed, the genius held back by years of self-loathing, and everything he and his mother had dreamed of doing together was done. He powered through it and then, when that was done, he went on to other things. Bigger things. Things to make his father stand up and take notice – that the youngest Taylor might not be a soldier but he wasn't a no one either.

Lucas shut off his Plex, and his scarring memories, as there came a knock on his unit door. He frowned at it then started towards it, waving his hand over the lock sensor so it slid open. He frowned at the two suited men in the doorway. "Yes?"

They pulled off their Re-Breathers and let them hang off their necks as they frowned gently at him. "Lucas Taylor?" Lucas nodded with a returned light frown. "We're O'Riordan and Young from the Holder Corporation." The talker, O'Riordan, paused. "We'd like to talk to you about your father." He motioned inside. "Can we come in?"


	10. Chapter 5: Like Frosted Glass

**A/N: **For BeWhoYouAre99 because she ships Stelena like me (Delena can kiss my ass!) and Ordinary Life In Terra Nova is cuteness on screen. Read it!

Keeping Distance

Chapter 5;  
>Like Frosted Glass <p>

She'd always been the girl who poked spiders. The one whose father would run up and grab her around the waist because she'd be dancing along the top of a brick fence three times her height. On the edge was where she played and that hadn't changed when she came to Terra Nova. She'd been eleven, everything was massive and should have been terrifying, but it wasn't. Not for her. For a year Terra Nova had been enough – playing epic games of Hide & Seek with Hunter Boyce, climbing trees in the orchard and watching the work crews building homes for the Sixth Pilgrimage. For a year everything was good and fun. Then came the Fever and it all got darker – including her sense of 'fun'. It clouded her mind, making her push boundaries, do stupid things – made her foolish. The dark cloud had lifted now to some extent but that rebelliousness remained. She no longer sought 'the edge' to push… but she did still like poking spiders.

She guessed that was why she was now walking towards Lab 2. It was 'Day Two' as she was now logging them in her head, counting down to the five-week mark Lucas had been given. The five weeks before it was too late for those in the Infirmary and it was game over. Five weeks until it was cured too… maybe? Positive thought drove her there instead of the idea of death. But then of course that meant five weeks until Lucas' 'catch' came into play. Skye smothered a frown at that thought. She didn't want to think about the Commander leaving Terra Nova but if she'd learned anything about Lucas it was that he had the unenviable skill of smacking you in the face while planning a coup behind your back, and he was a man not to be underestimated. He would have his catch fulfilled, even if he had to flatten Terra Nova to do it, it would be done.

But 'not to be underestimated' didn't mean 'not to be poked' and that was Skye's very intention. She was finished at work for the day and wasn't due home until six. She had three hours to kill and she was going to use them making sure 'The Nutty Professor' was doing his job.

"Hey!" Skye called with a smile. At the front door of the lab stood Mark Reynolds and fellow soldier Mitchell, a young man who had won over every girl in Terra Nova when he'd come through on the 7th Pilgrimage. He was 23, handsome and funny but… married. His wife came through on the 8th and hearts had broken all over the colony that day. Both men smiled at Skye as she walked up. "How's the babysitting?"

"Interesting," Mitchell started. "Taylor talks to himself, or should I say chides himself, rather loudly. It's kind of hilarious."

Skye shrugged. "When you're in the bush for years and no one loves you, you find friends anywhere you can I guess. His best friend is probably a tree." They all laughed. Despite the gravity of everything going on in Terra Nova, the return of Lucas Taylor as a captive of the colony was still a jovial topic. It was like the long-desired 'revenge' had at last been given and the reality of the Sixers and the Phoenix Group (whose return in Skye's mind wasn't a case of 'if' but 'when') was nonexistent. It was a false high Skye knew, but who was she to close down their happiness, what level of cruel was she?

She motioned inside. "Am I allowed in?"

Reynolds frowned. "You need a reason to go in." He shrugged. "Mr. Shannon's orders."

Skye bit her lip a little. "Mark, c'mon, you know I'm the only one who can put a cracker up him. He's probably in there pacing back and forth and doing nothing at all, muttering about how he was outsmarted again. Let me go get him back on track."

Mark looked at Mitchell, who just shrugged, then nodded. "Fine, but only fifteen minutes, and don't get him angry."

Skye held up two hands, a grin on her face. "Please, me? Why would he be angry at me?" She passed Mark as he unlocked the door. "Maybe just a few choice reminders of his humanity, just to keep him motivated." She grinned as Mark shook his head a little but the grin fell as he shut and locked the door. Suddenly she felt trapped. She took a deep breath.

"Hello Bucket." His voice floated in from the room beyond the frosted glass before her and she stepped past them to find him leaning over a table of papers, pen in his hand, the end pressed to his chin as his eyes thoughtfully scanned the notes. He didn't look up at all and for a moment Skye felt she'd imagined his voice in her head, an echo of a taunt more than a reality, but then his eyes snapped up. "I was expecting you earlier."

"I was working." Skye returned, finding her voice and her legs, moving towards the table. She studied the papers. Most were sketchings, similar to those from that day in The Eye, and all were hand drawn. She guessed he'd etched them from memory. She noted something. "The rotation of that one was clockwise, not anti-clockwise." She motioned to a drawing. It had been one of the first she'd seen in The Eye and it had stuck with her. Lucas leaned over and scratched out the 'anti' without a word and Skye frowned. "You trust me?"

"It's not about trust Bucket. You have a good memory and no reason to sabotage this." He wrote down a series of numbers and Skye watched him. In this state, thoughtful and quiet, he looked so normal. Just another smart guy with a job to do.

Skye flattened a piece of paper with a brush of her hand and looked up when she felt eyes on her. His expression was unreadable and she looked back at the paper. "What?"

"Why are you here?" He finally asked. "To check up on me?" She nodded. "Is that all?" Skye nodded again. "Don't trust me Bucket?"

Skye scoffed. "Not as far as a Carno can throw you." She said cruelly, the sting of his lack of reply about trusting her suddenly echoing in her head. She frowned internally, unsure why she cared, but suddenly eager to verbally beat him down. He just gave a half smile to her answer and went back to work. Skye let the silence sink into her pores for a moment but then it bugged her. She found another question. "Is this just about seeing the Commander fall?" He didn't raise his eyes at all, the end of the pen moving from his chin and running under a difficult equation she seemed to be checking in his head. "Because you know if you do this, let the Commander stay, keep being… I don't know – useful, you could probably come back." Skye shoved her hands in her pockets, unsure why they'd chosen now to start shivering.

He didn't look up when he spoke so Skye had to strain to hear him. "Is that what you'd want dear sister?" He dropped the pen and turned away, grabbing a green highlighter. He kept talking as he worked. "I don't want to be 'useful' Bucket, I'm not a pack mule, I'm not after a carrot and a pat on the head." He stopped, thinking for a moment, then looked up, his intense gaze making Skye take a step back. "Yes, my father the outcast, exposed and humiliated is all I want. All I'll ever want."

Skye sighed softly. Maybe she was naïve, god knew she'd been called worse, but Skye believed everyone at their very centre had a heart – even the worst men did. She'd thought Curran a monster and then he saved her mom. No, she wouldn't believe the man before her ran solely on revenge. She wanted to poke him again but instead of a heartless question a certain sadness escaped her lips. "Oh Luke, that can't be all you live for."

Something flashed on Lucas' face, not anger, something else. Something maybe even more unsettling – grief. The start of his sentence was an octave higher than his usual tone. "Don't," he cleared his throat, put down his pen and turned away. "Don't call me that Bucket."

There was no threat, no warning in his request, and Skye knew she had to accept. "Okay, I'm sorry, I won't do it again." He cleared his throat again and turned back, his expression impassive once more, returning to his work diligently. Skye's eyes went to the papers. "Did she call you that?" She felt it went unsaid who 'she' was. It was always about her when Lucas closed up. Ask him of his father and he could rant for hours but Ayani Taylor was uncharted waters. The look on Lucas' face told her he would rather it stay that way forever.

"Let it be Bucket." But she noted that he'd stopped writing.

"I just… it was a simple 'yes or no' answer."

He dropped the pen and stood up to his full, formidable height. "It's not just a 'simple 'yes or no'' though is it?" His eyes narrowed. "You want to psychoanalyze me, work out my issues then maybe, hopefully fix me just enough to stop me sending your precious Commander away. Am I right?" Skye's eyes fell. Whether she knew it consciously or not that had been her intention from the start. Lucas was the key and she'd broken his walls down before. She stupidly believed she could do it again. "You can't fix me Bucket, can't save my father, so go away little girl."

Skye's jaw clenched at that insult again and the guilt left her, the anger rushing back. She lifted her eyes back to his, a menacing glare in them. "I have a right to ask about her."

She stiffened when he smacked the table. "No you don't!" His anger was rising and at any moment one of them would burst. Spite edged his tone as he continued. "Because you're my father's little angel? 'Sister' is just a gibe Bucket – you have no right."

Resolutely Skye stepped forward. "I do when she's the reason innocent people are dead." He glowered and she scoffed. "Did you even think of that? Ayani Taylor – indirectly involved serial killer." She sneered. "She must be so proud of you." With that Lucas raised his hand and Skye took a step back, ready to dodge a blow, but it was never aimed at her. Instead Lucas managed to swipe half the papers off the table. He then turned and stalked off into the back room and everything went quiet.

With a sigh, quenching her anger, Skye bent down and gathered up the papers. Slowly he started to put them back on the desk and reorganize them. She didn't hear Lucas re-enter until he spoke. "Why do you really want to know?" His tone was softer and she knew then that he hadn't been asked about her for a long time. He seemed to want to talk about her. Skye kept sorting the papers.

"People call me foolish Lucas," she admitted. "Like I'm still a child. But I can read people, it's something my father taught me, and it's why I could read you. Why I could play you." She glanced back at him. "I just wish we hadn't used plastic cuffs." He gave a soft snort and moved to her side. She handed him half the papers. "I can tell your mother, the subject of her, hurts you. I knew that from the moment you mentioned her. The moment you told me your father hated you for being born." She stopped sorting for a moment. "I know what it's like to watch a parent die, how alone you feel afterwards, to feel responsible." She sensed the frown on his face and his eyes on her but she didn't look up. "We always had common ground Lucas, and now we have a common goal, so I have to ask… you don't have to tell me."

It fell quiet for a long time, more than five minutes Skye would say, as she kept reading papers and sorting them. The pile felt heavier every second she stayed, though it should have been lighter, it was decreasing after all. And then, when Skye felt she wouldn't hear his voice again, Lucas spoke. "Ayani Louise Taylor. Her family name was Beauchamp. Named after a song." Skye glanced over at Lucas and saw he'd stopped moving altogether. Everything except his eyes and his mouth had ceased working. "Her mother was Hawaiian, her father was from Colorado. She was born in Chicago. I don't know how my grandparents met or why they were in Chicago but they were. She was five when she met my father. He was twelve, seven year age gap, but it didn't faze them. They were practically family, neither had siblings, and best friends. My father proposed when he was first sent overseas. She was fifteen. Stupidly she said yes." Lucas sighed. "I was born two days after her 21st birthday. Father named me, after his father, and my mother hated the name. Only ever called me 'Luke', never Lucas, just Luke." He smiled wistfully. "She thought the best of everyone, would help people any way she could, and wanted me to be the same. And she loved science, and math, and nothing I ever did – short of breaking laws – was wrong. Every scientific theory, every math equation, every picture I drew. Every single one was perfect." He shook his head lightly. "She never let me down, she called me out on every lie I told with a smile, and she'd sit with me every night before bed and let me tell her wild stories or demand her help with a math equation or formula I was working on."

Skye smiled softly. "She sounds amazing. I'm sorry she's gone." And she was genuinely sorry. Here before her stood a different person. There was no malice in his expression, just wistful thoughts ran through his mind, and a sad smile edged his lips.

But that was lost quickly. "I'm sorry too." The spite returned. "And so my father will be." He snapped from his reverie and looked at her, holding his hand out for the papers, which Skye gave back cautiously. "You should go."

"I want to help." She wasn't sure if she meant with the Portal or with Lucas' rather obvious issues, but she felt not addressing which was better, and left the door open for both. "Can I come back tomorrow?"

"I can't keep you out." Lucas replied, returning to his work, and Skye knew it was time to go. It wasn't exactly an invitation but it was the best she was going to get.

"Ok. Night Lucas." She headed through the frosted glass doors and tapped twice on the front door. As Mark unlocked it she heard one last thing.

"Night Bucket."


	11. Chapter 6: Breakfast and The Badlands

**A/N: **Quick update – yay!

Keeping Distance

Chapter 6;  
>Breakfast and The Badlands <p>

'Day 3' had been uneventful. Despite Skye's pushing Lucas hadn't opened up again about his mother and after 20 minutes of his still silence she'd given up asking. Then again he hadn't got angry with her either, nor seemed to regret what he had shared, so she knew she was making headway. They spent the day transferring Lucas' etchings onto the computer system, he doing the drawings and she adding the equations and minor details. They worked for 45 minutes before Jim came in to check Skye was still alive. He seemed surprised to find not only was she breathing, but they were working well together. Well, as well as dead silence could be, the only sounds papers moving and the click-click of Skye's typing. She didn't even ask Lucas to clarify something if she couldn't read it or thought it wrong, not quick to kill the (not at all uncomfortable) silence. But though they worked well Jim insisted Skye call it a day. So, without a word, Skye went with him begrudgingly.

'Day 4' started differently. Her morning shift at the Infirmary had been moved to the afternoon so she headed to Lab 2 just after breakfast to find Lucas poring over his computer, breakfast untouched next to him. "Eat your breakfast," was the first thing Skye said as she walked in. Lucas looked up with a frown. She motioned to the cereal. "Eat it." She said with a smile.

He cast his eyes skyward but stood and picked up his breakfast. "Sorry mom." He muttered sarcastically. Skye just grinned and sat down where he'd just been. "Something's wrong with it." He motioned with his spoon, his mouth full of cereal, and Skye fought back a disgusted frown.

"What's this one for?" She asked, moving her finger over the computer touchpad so the equation, a large sphere with lines and numbers through it, rotated.

"It's part 6 of 14 parts that make up the location equation. I ran it through The Eye when you left yesterday and it couldn't read part 7 to 14 because there's an error here somewhere." Skye leaned forward on her hand and assessed the equation, knowing most problems were simple and that Lucas had likely just overthought it. He spoke again. "You were supposed to be insulted when I called you 'mom'." He suddenly sounded a lot like a child, disappointed when none of his friends laughed at his anecdote.

Skye glanced back at him. "Why would I? After what you told me about your mom it sounds more like a compliment." Her finger scanned the computer as she looked back at it, missing Lucas' smile, and gave a light laugh as she saw the mistake. "Here. You didn't carry the one." Clearing the calculation from that point on she continued. "Okay, and now…" She paused. "Square root of 64?"

"Eight." Lucas muttered.

"That's right." She tapped in the 8 and the equation was complete again. She stood. "Wanna check?" Lucas nodded and moved to sit with his cereal. Skye watched him check it. "Why did you tell me about her?" He grunted through a mouthful of cereal and Skye took it to mean 'who?'. "Your mom. You didn't have to tell me. You could have said 'rack off Bucket' and threatened me some more. Instead you've been, well, human."

Lucas turned, putting down his breakfast. "Honestly? You were right – I wanted to talk about her. She's the reason I'm doing this. As for 'being human', well, everyone likes a pretty assistant." He raised his eyebrows with a smirk.

"So, this is just to get what you want? All this 'being nice, joking' stuff?" She couldn't hide the disappointment. She knew she couldn't 'solve' him but she thought she could soften him at least, not just for the Commander's sake, but everyone's. But once again it seemed she was stuck in a Lucas game. "Would you rather keep fighting?" He asked. "Because that's a lot of energy and it doesn't get the Portal rebuilt."

"I know but I thought when you told me about your mom that you were, I don't know…"

"Opening up to you in a step towards becoming a good guy?" He hid the scoff but Skye knew it was there in the back of his throat. "Bucket – you're a smart girl and no one else can stand to be near me, that's why I keep you around. If you want me to pretend you're fixing me then I'll do it, but in the end you keep your friends close and your enemies closer… and I haven't decided which one you are yet." He tapped the screen, ignoring her crestfallen expression. "This is correct. Well done." He put down his cereal and copied the equation onto a portable core. Skye watched it copy and initialize wordlessly and Lucas seemed to sense her mood. He looked back at her and, for the first time she'd ever heard from him, he spoke like the 25-year-old he was instead of the 'disgruntled child' shtick he usually pulled. It made him seem less mad which, in turn, made him also seem more dangerous. 'Sick' or 'twisted' was an easy tag. This normality though, it proved that he wasn't nuts – he chose to act the way he did. "I'm going to be frank with you because you deserve that." She listened, enraptured by his calm voice and bright green eyes looking at her like a teacher does a student. "We work well together, you're smart and the only one I've ever trusted with my work. I can't do this alone in 5 weeks, but if we work together we can do it. And we both want this. So, let's be adult about this. In five weeks the Portal could be reopened, your friends could be safe, and I'll be contently locked back in the Brig. Or your people could be dead and you'll still be sitting here trying to fix in weeks what it took eleven years to break." Skye's eyes fell. "I repeat; I'm not sorry I can't be who you want me to be Bucket, but I can give you some of what you want. I can give you the Portal reopened and your cure gathered." He turned back as the computer beeped and he withdrew the core. "Now, tell me that's enough and you'll stop this silliness and work with me, or else you can go and not come back."

And that was it. There was no room for debate, nothing Skye could say, and she knew she had to agree to what he said. "Ok." She stepped forward and took the Pyrethrium Core from his hand. "I'll run this through The Eye right now."

She headed for the door as Lucas added one last thing. "Thank you Bucket." No creepy tone, no whisper, just a genuine 'thank you'. Unfortunately it didn't make Skye feel any less like she'd just agreed to play Poker with The Devil.

…

"Skye!" Leaving The Eye with Lucas' formatted core, Skye glanced up at the familiar voice, and smiled warmly at the sight of Josh. He jogged up to her and motioned to the device in her hand. "Taylor got you running errands for him now?"

She shrugged. "Just running calculations through The Eye, all I've ever been good at."

Josh shook his head. "That's not all you're good at." Skye fought back a light blush. She could tell herself that the crush she'd had on Josh when he first came to Terra Nova was gone, but that would be a lie, and she'd had enough of lying to herself. He motioned to the Orchard. "Graham wanted to know when you'll next be fruit-picking. It took me five minutes to convince him you hadn't quit."

Skye smiled sadly. After the mess with Lucas the first time Skye had been given the part-time fruit-picking job under the tutelage of Graham, a mid-40s man who was one of the few people that didn't look at Skye like she was the scum of the Earth, the way many did around Terra Nova. Skye the Sixer spy, hated by all it seemed, except Graham. He seemed to understand that she'd had to. The pair grew close, working long hours in the Orchards, and Skye saw Graham as a father figure, or maybe more the big brother she'd never had. "I miss him." She admitted softly.

"You should go see him. Stuff Taylor, he can do his own job." Though Josh knew why Lucas was here, his animosity to the man could not be any more obvious, the teenager still smarting from the death of his girlfriend. He had yet to open up to Skye about Kara, the same way Skye didn't talk about her short but torrid history with Lucas, and it seemed to make their friendship stronger somehow. Skye guessed it was the trust between them, the fact neither needed details, though both seemed to know the other was there if they did want to talk. "He's the genius after all."

Skye gave a soft laugh. "He thinks he is, but yesterday he had trouble with a capped pen, and it was like early man." She impersonated Lucas smacking a pen against an invisible table before her. Josh laughed but the humour wore off quickly and Skye's smile fell a little. "Tell Graham I have Thursday afternoon off, I'll come see him then, but I need to get these equations done. It's all paper and numbers stage at the moment and I can help." She paused. "I have to help."

"I know." Josh smiled and touched her hand. "Come by mine tonight? Bring your mom. Mom's cooking and she always, always, makes too much. Plus Maddy's bringing Reynolds and I need an ally."

Skye snickered. "Against what?"

"The board games that will invariably come out. We can do a duel escape strategy – your mom will get tired, I'll help you walk her home, and not come back until Zoe's won every game and dad's eye-threatened Reynolds into losing every time." He grinned.

"You don't want me there, you just want a 'get out' clause."

Josh shrugged. "At least I'm honest about what I want from you." It was humourous as ever but Skye knew there were undertones of 'unlike Lucas' in there and she just smiled softly. He motioned back towards the work crew starting towards the gates. "I have to go OTG for the day, problems at Outpost 5 that need my attention, so you'll have to tell me now if I…"

"I'll be there." Skye said quickly.

Josh smiled. "Good." He backed up. "7 o'clock?" She nodded. "And go see Graham." Skye made an ugly face. "That's hot."

Skye just laughed as he walked off with a wave behind him. When he was gone she let out a soft sigh. With Josh things were simple, more fun, despite everything they'd gone through. She wished everything was like that, but it never would be. Lucas had assured her of that earlier. Made it clear that the peace Terra Nova had once promised was nothing more than a pipedream.

…

Carter leaned against a tree, catching his breath, eyeing the forest around him warily. Years out here had taught him that being alone was never a good thing, but he had no choice, there simply was no one else. The Terra Novans had taken the rest of the group he'd set out with and now he was heading towards The Badlands alone. He'd been walking/driving/running for the last 2 ½ days but he was getting close. He knew it from the way the forest cleared out and the smell of dirt picked up. He'd only been to The Badlands once before and was glad he'd always had a knack for remembering routes. After leaving Snakehead Falls during the Terra Novans' attack he'd headed back to Sixer Camp, a 3-hour run, where he'd gathered up a Rover and made for The Badlands. That had ended a day and a half later when the Rover simply ran out of fuel. He discarded it and kept going on foot. Carter's resilience was what made him so valuable to the Sixers and he knew it. He was Mira's right-hand man and right now he was heading back to her side.

"Stop!"

The voice was a welcome one, as hostile as it sounded, when Carter pushed himself off the tree and took three steps forward. He stopped moving and held up his hands. "Scott Carter, head of security for the Sixers." He eyed the tree line but saw no movement. "Find Mira."

"Weapons down." Carter lowered his hands too when he heard that voice. Mira's – one he hadn't heard in three months, not since the Sixers and the Phoenix Group were driven back into the forest after losing Terra Nova. Calmly as ever the tall dark-skinned woman stepped out onto the clearing where Carter stood. "You're alone?"

"They got everyone."

Mira frowned. "That certainly wasn't the plan." She narrowed her eyes. "But Taylor's in?"

He nodded. "Just as we suspected – they used the Tate girl."

Mira frowned. "I don't know yet whether Lucas' knowledge of her is a good or a bad sign." Carter gave a light frown. "Let's just say I'm not so sure he won't be easily compromised."

"You doubt his abilities to reopen the Portal?" Mira shook her head at Carter's question. "What then?"

"His reason for doing it." She fished a bottle of water from her hip. "Drink this and walk with me. Hooper doesn't need to know how many Terra Nova captured. He'll do something stupid like barge in there and get them out."

"Does he know the plan at all?"

Mira gave him a knowing look; a look that said 'you've known me for years, do you really have to ask that?' and Carter hid a smile. "He knows enough." She stuck her hands in her pockets. "And if Taylor sticks to the mission then it's all he'll need to know until that Portal is reopen and we're back to 2149."


End file.
